S&l Properties Are Plentiful In Hard-hit States

Nation's housing

January 13, 1990|By KENNETH HARNEY

WASHINGTON — Could I interest you in a cozy mobile home in Dinosaur, Colo., for $175 cash? Or 40 acres of land with explosive resale potential in Gusher, Utah? Maybe a five-room frame for a serious fixer-upper in Minneapolis for $4,400?

How about condos in warm, sunny places at prices guaranteed to suit your bank balance: A neat one-bedroom in Tampa, Fla., for $19,900? A one-bedroom in Phoenix, Ariz., for $15,900 and you name your financing. Your choice of two-bedroom units in St. Petersburg, Fla., for just $37,000 to $38,000. A one-bedroom in San Diego for $48,400? Or if you're into high-end golf and tennis resorts, how about a deluxe three-bedroom, two-bath stucco townhouse on Hilton Head Island, S.C., for a mere $179,900?

Perhaps boating is your bag? Then take your pick of any of 58 yacht slips we've just listed for $4,400 each in League City, Texas. Think big - sign up for a few and we can work a wholesale deal on the price.

Ever wanted to buy a mine? An entire country club? A chunk of land bigger (77,000 acres) than some entire countries in the United Nations? Ever hanker to buy a Hyatt Grand hotel, a Days Inn or a Popeye's? Strip retail centers, entire hospitals, chiropractic clinics, nursing homes, empty office buildings, mobile-home parks, resort timeshares by the thousands, and more ticky-tacky townhouses in Texas than you can imagine?

If your answer is yes - or even a qualified maybe - then belly up to the RTC real-estate bar, and start checking out the stock. The RTC stands for Resolution Trust Corp., the federal bailout agency handling the sale of the assets of failed savings-and-loan associations. RTC has just published a four-volume guide to the first 30,000 of its real-es tate holdings.

Copies of the full set are available by phone for $50 apiece by calling 1-800-431-0600. Later this month RTC says it will announce a phone number allowing you to obtain specialized listings of its inventory - like all the rental apartment buildings in a particular state, or all the single-family homes in a particular city.

In the meantime, here are some practical tips on evaluating whether and how you want to deal with the RTC.

First, bear in mind that the overwhelming bulk of RTC properties listed to date are located in nine states - Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona, Louisiana, Georgia, Utah and New Mexico. Residential, commercial and undeveloped land parcels are available in another 36 states, but in relatively small handfuls.

For example, RTC has 351 homes, 39 commercial and seven land offerings in California. It has one piece of real estate in the nation's capital, 12 in New York, two in Connecticut, 16 in Maryland, 207 in Illinois, 103 in Virginia, 83 in North Carolina 113 in Minnesota and five in Massachusetts. Compare that with Texas' 14,328 homes for sale, 1,340 commercial properties, and 82 land parcels.

The upshot: If you're not really interested in acquiring real estate in the sections of the country that have been hit hardest - and earliest - by the S&L crisis, you may not want to order a catalog. RTC officials note, however, that future listings will include properties acquired from the second and third waves of S&L failures, including far more in the Northeast.

Second, bear in mind that RTC has been given a short tether by Congress when it comes to wheeling and dealing on price. The S&L bailout bill essentially requires RTC to get no less than 95 percent of market value for whatever it's selling. Market value, in turn, is established through appraisals.

Telephone inquiries by this reporter on random samples of the 30,000 properties revealed that some of their asking prices are based on appraisals done in 1988 or early 1989. They may be overpriced for the current marketplace, and won't be truly salable under the 95 percent guideline until new appraisals are completed and RTC lowers the asking price.

Third, don't figure on obtaining mortgage financing or deferred seller-takeback deals from RTC on most of the first batch of properties. RTC wants you to arrange your own financing. The S&L bailout bill authorizes RTC to loan money to buyers if it helps move properties that no one else will finance.

But RTC officials say they won't know which properties are their biggest lemons for a year or two. If you can stand the wait, you may come away with an RTC loan.

Finally and most important, look hard at RTC real-estate listings before signing up. RTC itself warns that all its properties are being sold 'as is,' bugs and all. By definition, many of the properties are either 'distressed' themselves, or located in distressed markets.

RTC's sale price may sound right, but the true price of ownership - after rehabilitation, management, turnaround and debt service - could prove to be far steeper than you thought.